Lucky Charm
by atemfan1
Summary: Jimmie didn't know much, unless it had to do with basketball or girls. Though, he found out 'Babe' isn't an appropriate name for a girl at the wrong moment, it was luck he ran into her though. She thought she was luckier he ran into her. JimmiexOC
1. Charmed

"Hm,"

Tiara Gold. She was _the _next Sharpay Evans in line. And it was her turn. In a blunt dive, she managed to duck to dodge the orange, less than air-headed—basketball! At least she made sure her blonde crown wasn't damaged. Turning around in a stiff manner, she faced the culprit.

She had black hair, Tiara felt so lucky she didn't have to try to keep her hair so perfect so it would shine, even at night. Glasses, I guess contacts didn't stop her inner nerd. And her brown eyes, _psh_.

"Excuse me," Tiara's chime nearly stopped half of the people in the gym class. "You," She pointed accusingly at the girl. "You _hit_ me with that ball." Well, nearly.

"Wha?" One girl dropped her awkward position from picking up the basketball and gingerly walked over to Tiara. "I hit you?" Tiara nodded as if anyone didn't know. "Um—_I'm so sorry_!" She bowed as if she was face-to-face with a princess, wasn't she? "I so didn't mean to—honest!" She held up the fallen basketball as a wish of forgiveness.

Tiara stared at the girl's regretful eyes with satisfaction. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again." With a sharp tap, she slapped the ball out of the black-haired girl's hands, letting it land in her cheap—oh, of course she could tell!—shoes.

Tiara sauntered proudly out the hall after class, kids making a path for her. This was _her_ high school now, and she was running it.

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

"What team!?"

"Wildcats!"

"_What team!?_"

"_Wildcats!_"

"Hm,"

She looked at her locker, where was her pencil? The mechanical one with the pink nub called the eraser? "Damn," The raven-haired girl muttered under her breath. She only had .01 of an ounce of respect for Tiara Gold. And her pencil, well, no one takes away her weapon. And that reminded her of when she used the .99 attempting to hit Gold with that basketball, not intentional—_Of course_.

"Damn you," She slammed the pink locker next to her so loud the sound waves could've caused ringing in the ears. Then she used every ounce of her strength to bash the locker next to her, for every hit, was every rude as hell comment.

_"Out of my way,"_

_ "Freak."_

_ "People with places go first."_

And just the simple haughty laugh intertwined with that British accent irritated her more than when the skater guys drag their skateboards across the hall like a wagon.

With a last kick, she smiled in satisfaction.

_Bm, B-bm, Bm, B-m-bm…_

She tensed. Who was coming? She quickly slipped away from her neighbor locker, and started fiddling with the lock, spinning it feverishly until it magically opened. Once it was forcefully ajar, she stuck her head in it as if she was doing nothing wrong—_right_.

The one set of footsteps, was it going that slow? Cruiser. She flinched every time a 'B_-m_' was repeated.

The stranger was just banging on the lockers. Okay, not a stranger. Just Jimmie Zara. He's the captain of the basketball team. He's the kid who ran around naked because the former senior Troy Bolton stole his clothes. He who sang with Sharpay Evans, in an albeit, strange performance.

She could feel him taking his sweet precious time to get to the basketball court, on the other side of the school. The girl internally groaned in annoyance. She bent down, finding her extra-credit assignment tucked in a half-together folder. At least one thing came out good today. Flattening the bundles of papers together, she scrawled on the name 'Charmaine Lendoza' at the top of the cover page with a pen she borrowed. Hoping to avoid talking to him, heck, he probably didn't even know her first name; she just stared at the wall of her locker, waiting for him to leave.

The worst possible thing that came true was that not only he bumped into her, but she couldn't save her papers from flying like fireworks on the fourth of July. "What the hell!?" Charmaine instantly dropped to the floor, retrieving all the loose papers she could find. "Couldn't you be a little more careful?" she muttered under her breath, more to herself than the boy in front of her.

"My bad!" the boy prompted, grabbing the cover page. "It was an accident."

"Yeah." The girl said, rather uncomfortable. She banged her back to her locker, slipping to the floor all over again. She sighed in frustration, trying to put the pages in order.

Jimmie sat down next to her, leaning on Tiara's locker. "Baby, I can't believe you wrote this much!" He said in amazement.

"Unfortunately, I have a lot of time on my hands." Charmaine said, holding her hand out for Jimmie to give her the cover page. "And _what_ did you just call me…?"

"Really..." He scanned the title page. "Charmaine."

The sound of her name leaving his lips left an odd feeling to herself. "Hm. You just found out my name, you looked at the assignment heading, didn't you?"

"Nah," Jimmie said, waving her off. "I just _refreshed_ my memory of your name."

Charmaine almost laughed, _almost_. She just settled on a wan smile. It was the first time she decided to crack a smile to him. Charmaine usually had a permanent scowl whenever he was around, deciding he was too… enthusiastic for her taste. And the facts that if she didn't like basketball, she should hate the basketball captain more. But that was childish.

The smile quickly faded when Jimmie placed the title page on her lap. "I should give this Ms. Darbus." She announced, getting up and heaving her backpack on. Holding out a hand, Jimmie complied, and Charmaine helped him up. "Thanks, Jimmie. You're not half bad."

"Cool, you can call me Rocket Man, though." Jimmie replied awkwardly, letting go of her arm.

"I'd rather not." The ebony haired girl said bluntly, breaking into a jog towards the English wing.

"Why not?" Jimmie asked, catching up to her. She sighed; he wasn't going to let this go. Jimmie picked up the pace, walking backwards. So even though he was in the front so she wouldn't go anywhere and facing her so he can talk to her directly.

"I don't know." The girl mumbled, almost incoherent to understand. She watched Jimmie's skater shoes drag across the hall; he was going to trip at any time. She grabbed his arm once more, and tugged it so Jimmie was walking to her left side. "The story about why I may never call you Rocket Man is reserved, so you can wait." She turned the last corner, almost to the classroom.

"Okay." Jimmie replied slowly, wondering what kind of answer she pulled.

"Shouldn't you be prepping for a basketball game or something?" questioned the girl, clutching her extra credit papers tightly in case of another mishap.

Jimmie shrugged. "Don't worry about it."

"I never implied I was worrying, I just wondered." Charmaine neared the door, and heard a few voices. She froze.

"Wha—" Jimmie started, but was immediately silenced. The girl was holding her papers tensely, as if they'd vanish from her grasp. Her other hand was on his chest, making sure he didn't bump into her again. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

"Quiet." was the only thing the girl murmured. She waited a few moments, and in a barely audible tone, she counted. "Four, three," to each number, was a footstep, specifically, a stiletto-clad one. "Two, one."

"Rocket Man and… _four eyes_." Tiara Gold said, her last lines rolling off her tongue like honey, bittersweet honey. "I hoped you taught her how to hold a basketball properly, so no more… _accidents_ happen?"

Jimmie just glared at the Sharpay-clone, noticing how rude that comment was. Though he had to admit Tiara was one of the hottest babes he could possibly score, it didn't make up for her attitude. "We're still up for that lunch date?" He said in a more playful demeanor, total opposite of the glare he put on beforehand. He smiled as the blonde decided to ignore it, rolling her eyes as if she didn't hear anything, and walked away, her heels clicking.

Charmaine's hand continued to settle on Jimmie's chest, probably not even noticing. Her chocolate eyes were settled in a trance, all glazed over and dull. "Charmaine, you okay?" he asked, worried for his classmate.

The girl perked her head up, and shook it off, as if mentally coming back to earth. "Hm." she slowly descended her hand down, and walked in the classroom, Jimmie following shortly after.

"Ah! Miss Lendoza, what do I owe this pleasure?" Miss Darbus asked, clearly seeing Charmaine as one of her favourite students.

"I came in to hand in the English extra credit." Charmaine replied, her voice toneless.

"Oh, fabulous!" the teacher took the group of papers from her hand, placing them airily on her desk. In a slightly darker tone, she turned to the brunette basketball player. "And Mr. Zara? What do I owe this pleasure? Are you thinking of making up for last year's performance in the Spring Musical?"

"Oh, not really." Jimmie replied, watching Charmaine slip a flyer for Spring Musical tryouts in her back pocket. "I just owe her for messing up."

"It was a rather strange gesture, I didn't even ask." Miss Darbus heard the other teenager murmured. "But nether less, I appreciated it." Charmaine returned to her side by Jimmie, and knit her dark eyebrows in confusion. "Something the matter, Miss Darbus?"

"Not yet." The teacher said crisply.

Charmaine smirked at her teacher's comment, and left the room with the alleged 'Rocket Man'. She managed to be two steps ahead of him, not wanting so see his face. How embarrassing! She didn't care about what Tiara said, but she cared about the fact that Jimmie saw her being humiliated.

"So…" Jimmie chimed, almost uncomfortable. "What was with the _accident_ she said about before?"

"Nothing." She said offhandedly. "Basketball I had bounced off the rim and _almost_ hit her head. It may have been on purpose," Charmaine looked at the ground; she felt that she just _couldn't_ lie to him. "Even though it was seen as an accident, I know it was wrong. But I feel that she deserved it, I wish it did hit her head." She muttered, wishing the worst.

She faltered, as she felt a slight tug at her wrist. "Don't let Tiara get to you." Jimmie said, almost soothingly to her.

"Like how you get to her?" the girl asked. "Or _try_ to get to her?"

"Hey!" Jimmie protested, off guard by her comment. "I'm getting to her!" he patted something in his pocket, it was long and Charmaine could spot a bit of a shiny glass container inside. She watched a syrupy liquid bob in every step Jimmie took. "Yeah." Charmaine whispered, unsure of what to say.

"Besides," Jimmie tapped the corner of her glasses with his finger, making her face heat up. "You look kinda cute with those specs!"

She got back to the two-steps-ahead-of-him-thing. "R-really, what I said back in Miss Darbus' room, I really appreciate you sticking by me, even though Coach Bolton's going to make you run laps after this." She spun her body around to Jimmie, catching him off-guard. "Friends?" she stuck out her hand to him once again.

He backed up a bit grasped her hand tightly. "Sweet. I'm Jimmie 'The Rocket Man' Zara."

"Charmaine Lendoza," She smiled, for the first time, in a natural way. "I'm charmed to meet you."

Letting go of her hand to walk home, Jimmie watched her black head of hair disappear. She really was cute, in the cynical sarcastic way, and she seemed she had some good comebacks. Then he realized something. Why was he staying after-school again? And what did Charmaine mean about Coach Bolton making him run laps?

"Crap! Basketball practice!"

* * *

**So... how bad was it?**

~atemfan1


	2. Luck

**Yes, I do understand no one has reviewed. But I still love this story, no matter how much it sucks. Anyone know Jimmie's first name? James? Jacob? Jim?**

* * *

"Dude, I talked to Jimmie Zara today." Charmaine repeated, still in shock. "Are you serious. Are you serious!?"

"Who is the 'you' in this conversation?" someone on the other line asked, slowly, trying to calm her friend. Charmaine didn't act like this. Charmaine was cool, calm, and direct… well, she was direct. But cool and calm wasn't the best description of the conversation.

"You? 'You' is everything that caused this! The fallen papers, the urge, and the thought!" her friend exclaimed, pulling her hair out. "I need to like, calm down, right? Right, breathe." She started breathing, but it soon got faster and faster, going to nearly uncontrollable.

"You're hyperventilating—again." Elena muttered, playing with a teal piece of thread that was hanging off her shirt. "This isn't being calm. You're just being insane."

"Jimmie Zara!" Charmaine said, once again. "I thought he hated me!"

Elena sighed in irritation. She didn't want to deal with her hormonal induced friend; she had her own hormones to deal with herself. She pulled the phone away from her ear, as Charmaine kept repeating that name over and over. "I'm hanging up now."

"No wait—"

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Charmaine thought she was never going to talk to Jimmie again, like it was a once in a life time thing. Then again, she had English and study hall with him. But they still never talked then, she sat in the front, and he was in the back. "Gah…" she muttered, leaning her head on the cool desk. Just as the bell rang, Jimmie slipped in the room. It was unusual, he was always tardy.

She started copying notes. She enjoyed Miss Darbus as the new English teacher; she was cool, at least to her. She had a knack for liking thinks others didn't. She started doodling on the margins, small stars and moons. Their was always one moon orbiting us, then a million stars. She wondered how the moon feels. How there's only one of the moon to watch over us, but all these stars seem to overpower him.

She started ripping out a piece of paper from the back of her notebook and wrote in the middle of the top margin, _They Both Shine_. "The moon and stars both do, right?" she asked herself.

"Indeed." Miss Darbus smiled, looking over her shoulder. Charmaine scooted over a bit, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, but my deal is what shines more? But does it even matter? I guess they have their own thing." Charmaine replied softly, thinking deeper and deeper. She began writing what she just said, silently thanking her teacher. But the inspiration got foggier and foggier as the noise in the room seemed to increase. She covered her ears. She tried to drown out a bit of noise from the back of the room that managed to cloud her mind.

"Miss Lendoza, do you mind sitting one seat down?" Miss Darbus asked, pulling her completely out of her drive. "And Mr. Zara, up here." A collected path of 'Oo's' circled the room. "I hope you do pay more attention with this seat change, Mr. Zara."

Charmaine's breath hitched, as she moved her stuff over and Jimmie sat in her previous seat. "Sup, Charms." Jimmie grinned, looking at his new surroundings.

I guess she was going to talk to Jimmie pretty soon.

"Charms?" she asked. She never had a nickname before.

"Sure. I think it's a pretty cool nickname." Jimmie explained, slumping farther in his seat. "Damn, I hate the front seat, you have no baskets to lean your feet on." Charmaine smirked, and rested her feet on the metal book-holder of the Jimmie's seat.

She began writing once again, clicking her mechanical pencil every few seconds. Eventually with seven lines of rubbish, she began bordering her page with stars, and one crescent moon on the bottom corner until the bell rang.

She grabbed her books, and let them lean on her hip, her hand gripping them on the bottom of the stack. Charmaine went to the middle of the room, waiting for Elena, who didn't like the back, or the front.

"Whoa, whoa! Rocket Man's sitting in front of you!" She said, but her excitement was merely sarcastic.

Charmaine shrugged. "I thought we'd never talk to each other, only that day. But I was wrong, stupid me and my assumptions."

"Alright, let's get to gym. I heard we're playing basketball." Elena said primly, her books pressed to her chest, her and Charmaine walking out of the room.

Charmaine groaned. "I don't wanna play basketball." She whined, hitting a locker. "I thought we were playing volleyball today!"

"We were." Elena agreed, turning a corner, her friend shortly following. "But the basketball team is going to our period to teach us some stuff, so they changed the plans."

"I don't care if the basketball people are coming to teach us." Charmaine pouted. Her eyes were almost sad through her black framed glasses. "This sucks."

"It doesn't really matter, I play alternate on the volleyball team, and you're a setter." Elena replied, her tone neutral. "Besides, you should be happy. Jimmie'll be there."

"Oh, yeah. He's captain." Charmaine put into realization, almost forgetting. "Doesn't matter, he's not going to talk to me anyway. He has to teach basketball to all the other students to, along with the rest of the team."

"Tsk, tsk." chided Elena, slipping in the locker room. "And what did you say before about assumptions?"

Charmaine lazily followed like a baby duck and its mother. "Whatever."

"Alright, Wildcats!" Jimmie pepped to the audience of the gym room. "Well, every one knows what basketball is, right? The ball goes in the hoop—oh, not that way!" a collection of wolf whistles were made for a few moments briefly by the boys. "But it's more than that! You got defense, offence, guards, and three-point shots. Me and the rest of the team are gonna brief you on this!"

Charmaine's head was down, half-listening on Jimmie's little speech. She was placed with a big group of people, and was thrown a basketball. She chest-passed the orange ball to Donny Fox, who was obviously unprepared.

"Ow! Damn, girl, give a guy a warning!"

"Sorry," she muttered, apologetically. "I just don't feel comfortable with this sport."

"Why?" he asked, dribbling the basketball a little.

"Just, eh." Charmaine stuck out her tongue a bit, and Donny nodded, not understanding. "Don't worry about it. I'll do my best, just… yeah."

They split the group in two, and it was a five on five. They were practicing with half a basketball court. "What are we supposed to do now?" Elena asked.

"Wait," Donny answered, doing some foul shots. "We kind of have a basketball member as our teacher today." He pointed to the crowd of the basketball team next to all the gym coaches. "See? They're separating them among the groups."

"Alright." Elena nodded. "How would you know?"

"I'm the ball boy of the team."

Elena stifled a laugh at the basic answer. "Awesome."

"Right, very funny."

Charmaine glanced at Tiara Gold, who was talking with her group of friends. She hated how they were in the same group she was, Tiara would probally tell her how ugly she is, or something of the sort. Tiara was Tiara; she took others for her gain. Her long dark red basketball shorts swished back and forth as Charmaine moved, leaning over Elena.

"Eeeelennaaa," she sang, causing her friend to move two steps back. "Have you noticed fifteen minutes have passed?"

"Yes, yes I have." Elena said curtly. "Please control yourself."

"I will not calm down, I will simmer." She prompted, sitting cross-legged on the floor crossing her arms across her chest. "There's a reason for gym class. I'm gaining pounds by the second." She sighed, finally tired of waiting and leaned her head on her hand, arm on her thigh.

"You don't have to wait anymore. Rocket Man's coming over!" Donny pointed out, and he was right.

Charmaine's head lifted up slightly, watching Jimmie jog over to their group. "Let the games begin." Donny walked to Jimmie's side; she could tell they were good friends. They started splitting up the teams; Charmaine was on a team conveniently with Elena, inconveniently with Tiara.

"Okay," Jimmie clapped his hands; he was very into the idea of teaching his favourite sport. "Usually, you see the ref. throwing the ball in the air and one of the opposing members gets it. I guess I'll do that." He called for Elena and Donny, and threw the ball in the air. "Make sure you stay in court…"

Charmaine sighed, and jogged, watching after Elena. Soon enough, the basketball was in the air, and Donny got it, dribbling the ball. Elena came after it, and Donny threw it to Tiara—who wasn't even remotely paying attention—but Charmaine dived for it and successfully caught it.

"Nice interception!" Cheered Jimmie.

"You're going to regret that," Tiara seethed.

"You didn't even do anything." Retorted Charmaine silently to herself. She dribbled the basketball to its basket. She stood a good few feet away, ready to make the shot—until suddenly pushed off her feet. The wind was knocked out of her, right under the basket, basketball knocked out of her hands. "Aw, dammit." She hit her hand on her forehead, letting her cool palm subside the pain.

She felt uncomfortable in her shoulder—the pain multiplying by the second. "Are you okay?" Elena asked, crouching down to her side, Donny shortly following.

"Nope."

"Whoa, whoa! What was that?" Jimmie asked one of Tiara's friends.

"As you saw, I was getting the basketball." She snorted, her taut muscles easily seen off her small shirt.

"But you're on the same team!"

Charmaine's laugh echoed the area, and got up, despite the pain increasing, it was starting to drag to her arm. "Wow." She sat on a nearby bench, rubbing the shoulder that got some impact sliding on the polished gym floor. "Give me a few minutes."

Jimmie nodded, watching her cope with a smile on her face. But he couldn't deny by the slightest glance, she had to have frowned.

He turned his attention back to the group he was working with. Thank goodness he had Donny with him; he could never survive with all these girls. Though, he couldn't complain, they were girls. He sauntered over to Tiara, who just waved off one of her friends. "Does the teacher need to give the student a few pointers?"

Tiara scoffed. "Don't be coy with me."

"I don't have the slightest idea what that means," he advanced on her, checking her out. "But you look cute in gym clothes. Nice shorts." He pointed to the short white-lined hot pink shorts around Tiara's thighs.

"_Zara!!_" the sound of Coach Bolton's voice echoed the gym. "Get over here!"

Jimmie obeyed, but not before turning to Tiara. "Be right back." Going over to his basketball coach, he stared at his steely expression. "What's up?"

"What happened to Charmaine Lendoza?" he questioned fiercely.

Jimmie stared at him for a moment. "Oh, she was knocked over by her team member. She should be sitting at the bleachers for a few…" he turned to the bench, and Charmaine wasn't there. He checked the court, she wasn't there either. "Well, she was there…"

"I sent her to the nurse. And what were you doing? Flirting with girls? She practically sprained her arm and you didn't do anything?" Coach Bolton said, his tone feirce.

"Sorry." Jimmie muttered, seemingly disappointed.

Coach Bolton came closer to the Rocket Man, his face softer. "She was holding back tears." Jimmie's eyes widened. "And from what I see her in gym class—floor burns, baseballs to the head, she wouldn't cry over an injury."

Jimmie bit her tongue. He remembered watching Tiara's cold face hit Charmaine like a snowstorm. And how Tiara gave a small gesture to the girl who pushed Charmaine, but he thought it was nothing, until now. "Can I see her?"

Coach Bolton shook his head. "You're job is to teach your group how to play," He gestured to the group of kids at the far corner of the gym. Tiara and her friends were talking the usual gossip and Elena and Donny were bouncing the basketball to each other back in forth. "And so far you're not doing a good job."

Jimmie would have to wait.

* * *

He didn't see her until the next day in Miss Darbus' class. Jimmie made sure he got there extra early. And Charmaine was the first person in class; he got a good chunk of time to talk to her. He noticed her left arm was limp. There was some cloth tied around so she wouldn't be able to move it.

"You okay?" he asked her carefully, sitting in the desk in front of her.

"Better." Charmaine murmured, her eyes fixated on the printed sheet of notes in front of her.

"At least it was the left arm." Jimmie said hopefully, assuming she was right-handed.

"I'm left handed." Charmaine clarified, her expression more forlorn than before. "What the fuck, how the hell am I supposed to live now?" Jimmie ears noticed the suggestive language. "If I can't fucking write, how am I supposed to fucking do anything? Writing is my life."

"I'm sorry. It was my fault." Jimmie said apologetically. "To make up for it, I'll even write whatever you want."

"What are you talking about?" Charmaine finally looked at him, her brown eyes fitted with confusion. "It wasn't your fault."

"I was too busy checking out Tiara's ass." He confessed, blushing slightly. "I wasn't watching out, I was distracted."

Charmaine sucked in some air, glaring at him to some degree. After a long moment of silence, staring at each other, people in the room were filing in, watching them with confusion. With her right arm, she landed a punch to his shoulder, again, and again.

"Oh, I so wish I could punch you with my left hand, much stronger." Said Charmaine acidly in-between hits.

"Then it's luck it was your left arm sprained." Jimmie winced, the last punch hurt a little more than the other ones.

"No, you're luck is based on two things." Charmaine stopped hitting him and leaned back in her chair. "Luck that I'm already tired, and luck that you'll only have to write four-thousand words today."

"Four-thousand?" he repeated, unbelieving. "You write four-thousand words every day?"

"Usually seven-thousand, but I'm being nice. You'll be my hands every day for today, and for the rest of the week, maybe more." She managed to tear out a piece of notebook paper with one hand, and slapped it on Jimmie's desk. "Start writing, the title is _Ways I Can Fight the Urge to Hit People._" Jimmie laughed with a lopsided grin. "Fine. _Ways I Can Think Happier Thoughts_. Number one, think about how much Jimmie Zara is going to owe me…"

"Is this list really necessary? I wasn't serious."

"…Number two." Charmaine went on, ignoring him. "Remembering how Jimmie said to me _"To make up for it, I'll even write whatever you want."_ Number three—are you writing this down?" She teased.

"You're going too fast," he said, scribbling her last words. "And why would you need this?"

"Remembrance to make sure you don't screw up again." She said, a hint of devil in her voice. "Come on, only three-thousand and forty-eight more words to go!" she patted him on the shoulder in mock-comfort. "Hurry up, then we have another four-thousand tomorrow!"

That's what friends are for, right?

* * *

**Yes, I do understand no one has reviewed. But I still love this story, no matter how much it sucks. Anyone know Jimmie's first name? James? Jacob? Jim? **

**And thank you for reading!**


	3. Charming

"You know, volleyball captains usually _act_ like volleyball captains."

In the past, almost no one at East High knew they had a girl's volleyball team, as opposed to _everyone_ knowing they had a boy's basketball team. That is, until Coach Elener named Tiara Gold as captain of East High's girl's volleyball. Oh, Tiara made sure the volleyball team got all the recognition—she—wanted.

Currently, she was re-applying her manicure. It always chipped during games, and even practices _holding_ the ball. Even though it's a hassle, she had a true motive for being captain. It was ever since she found Jimmie Zara and Charmaine Lendoza in front of Miss Darbus' room the other day. Tiara noticed a new-found confidence in Charmaine, not that Tiara was affected, at least, not yet. Excluding beforehand at gym class, Charmaine paid the price, she got hurt in the end. But when she found out four-eyes was working her ass off for a spot on the volleyball team as captain this year, Tiara Gold could't pass up an opportunity to crush her once again.

Tiara snapped her fingers to one of the girls at her side and nodded. With a fierce growl, her lackey spiked a spare volleyball straight into the practice game.

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"Ow! The hell!?"

"What was that…?" Elena asked, scoping the room, trying to find out who threw the volleyball at her friend's head.

"A brutal hit." Charmaine said icily, grabbing the lone volleyball at her feet. "As I was saying, Tiara may play surprisingly good, but she isn't captain material!" She huffed, hitting the volleyball in her hand with a fierce swipe. Wincing, she gripped her left arm tightly, she didn't tell the gym teachers it hadn't completely healed, but she just had to play. She was so _bored_, two weeks was enough.

"Oo, someone's jealous!" her friend teased. "But you may have a point." She put a finger to her bottom lip in a thoughtful manner. "But we're doing pretty well, actually. We won the last three games!"

"The only reason that happened is because I _forced_ the reasonable part of this team to breathe, live and love volleyball for the past month!" Black loose strands of hair escaped from her ponytail, as if everything about her was going out of control. "And what's the point of having a captain who dosen't bother to act like one!?"

"Well," Elena spoke calmly. "We have _you_ to lead us."

"Me!?" Charmaine repeated in distaste. "Well, it isn't my job. I wasn't picked captain! I shouldn't even bother! I'm not even co-captain! Let Tiara be blamed! My life is impossible and_ where the hell is Coach Elener_? Dammit, if she was doing her job and coming to volleyball practice, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"

"Yolahnden! Lendoza! Get your head in the game!" Charmaine froze; did Coach Elener decide to get here _just_ now?

"You serious?" Charmaine hissed. "Now she decides to act like a coach!"

888888888

The next day, Elena made sure she kept away all conversation involving volleyball or Tiara Gold. In some way, she had to agree, Tiara wasn't captain material. It wasn't her problem, but she wanted to help her friend. Charmaine could have a spaz attack at any point, or break in tears.

She just didn't understand.

Charmaine used to be so calm and collected, and on rare occasions, she'd freak out. But at volleyball practice, she was practically bouncing off the walls! "You have ranting problems." She announced to her friend, who was apparently zoned out for a large amount of time. Great, so much for collected, so much for energetic, hello dreamy!

"You say something?" Charmaine asked offhandedly.

Elena shook her head in defeat, pushing a dark-brown lock behind her ear. "Never mind." She silently led the emotionally-unstable girl to their class. Pushing her to her desk, she got in her own took out her homework from Miss Darbus last night. Charmaine was still in a different world, staring at the front of the room with dull eyes. Elena sighed, the tardy bell was about to ring. "Where is he?"

Charmaine blinked hard, finding some feel of being in her desk and turned to her side. "Who's he?" Elena didn't answer, because just as the bell rang, he was here. Jimmie Zara slid to his desk fluidly, just in the nick of time.

"What took you so long, Rocket Man?" Elena droned, banging her head to her desk. "My job is so tiring."

Jimmie looked at Elena in curiosity. Turning around to face the desk behind him, he smiled at the girl sitting in it. She had a vague expression, staring at nothing but _above_. "Hey Charms, what's up?" Apparently, he decided that 'babe' was too much of a strong nickname on his friend. ("Also a strong nickname on _every girl _you try to flirt with." Charmaine noted.)

"The ceiling, the sky, an eternity of everything." Charmaine murmured, her fist digging in her cheek as a state of tiredness. She let her head loll to her desk, closing her dark chocolate brown eyes.

"Your arm cool?"

"Not really."

Jimmie was about to ask her to elaborate, but was cut of by a certain English teacher. "Mr. Zara! How many times to I have to tell you to turn around?"

"Um—"

"Exactly!" Miss Darbus smiled that… _smile_. "Now that I can't argue that Miss Lendoza is a pretty girl, but like you, she needs to copy the assignment on the board!" Jimmie attempted to cover the heat rising to his ears. He pushed his forest green beanie farther down his head, and swiped his notebook open. "That's the idea. And if I have to tell you to turn around again, fine. You can turn your desk to the wall, every morning."

Elena turned her head to Charmaine, who was smirking at the back of Jimmie's head. At least she knew her friend would be sane with Rocket Man around.

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"Hm." Charmaine had her palm under her chin again, gazing at her empty space on the lunch table. Her thoughts were slowly clearing away, but she still didn't feel well enough to have a decent lunch. Lunch break was winding down, and her friends at her table were piling trash onto one bright scarlet tray.

"Even though you didn't eat lunch, it doesn't mean you can still pass on your day." Elena chided, pushing the trash-infested tray to Charmaine's side.

"Sure." Carefully picking up the tray of trash, she shuffled to the trash bins, all the way on the other side of the lunch room. One milk carton was tipping dangerously to the ground. With a shaky hand, the girl missed, and the carton surprisingly didn't fall anyway.

"Whoa, Charmaine! Have a big lunch?" Jimmie laughed, gesturing to the lunch tray the girl was trying to level. He caught the milk carton at the last second. He swung an arm casually around his friend, flipping his brown bangs in the process.

"Not really, it's just my turn to throw out lunch for my table." Charmaine said. She watched in awe as he threw the milk carton perfectly in one of the trashcans. "You're the reason basketball is more bearable. I thank you for that."

"Though I am royally pissed you hate basketball—"

"Royalty?" scoffed Charmaine jokingly. "More like court jester."

"—we have something even more serious to talk about, _Princess_." Jimmie finished, not missing a beat. "So, you know how friends hang out, right?"

"I have heard friends do that." Charmaine marveled sarcastically.

"And they do," the basketball player agreed. "Basically, I'm saying we like, need to hang out. You know, scope the mall, tell me what the girls are thinking, example…" Jimmie let go of his arm and put on some 'swag' as he approached Tiara's table. "Hey, Baby." he bobbed his head up.

Charmaine continued to walk alone with a blank stare. She watched over her shoulder as Tiara folded her hands, expecting Jimmie to do back flips or something. Said boy snuck a glance at her, and she shrugged, having no idea what she could help him with. Jimmie didn't seem to notice, and whipped out a bottle of cologne, and sprayed a bit it on his arm. Tiara and her friends sneezed, clearly not buying it, and practically ran away.

Charmaine pursed her lips in a thin line, eyes still on Jimmie's now glum face. At least she spotted Donny coming to the rescue, probably saying, "Dude, don't worry. There's more fish in the sea."

"…Shit!" the lunch tray leaned to the left, and then Charmaine tried to swerve it to the right, then forward. And yeah, it did go forward, right into Tiara Gold's designer cardigan. "Oops." She murmured softly, this time, she was truly not after her. Just distracted by the moment, an unfortunate event. Charmaine dropped to the floor, picking up the fallen trash that bounced off the floor.

Tiara let out a shrill cry, causing the whole lunchroom to stop silent. Elena rolled her eyes at the scene. Charmaine couldn't even throw out trash without something bad happening. "Though, this a show that redirects the Montez and Evans lunch incident."

"_You!_" Tiara accused, pointing a pink-polished finger at the culprit. "I have been lenient with you, but you, you always have to 'accidentally' push it!" She snapped her fingers twice. One girl was dabbing some milk that spilled off of Tiara's sleeve. The other advanced on Charmaine, and let a cup of grape juice—slip—on her orange t-shirt. "Oops!" Tiara drawled loudly. "Sorry, it was an 'accident'!" But the audience didn't even 'Ooh!' they just stared.

"Say something." Elena whispered urgently.

"She can't say anything!" Tiara responded aloud, laughing.

Charmaine's body shook. Her voice cracked. "J-just… j—"

"J-j—j-j-ju-ju." Tiara imitated, cupping her ear and leaning forward. "I'm sorry; I can't hear you… not."

Charmaine shook her head, as if shaking away a nightmare. She bit her tongue, thinking it would overwhelm the pain she was going through now. She took a breath, she took a thought, she took everything hitting her head like a home run.

"Just, _shut up_."

Her tone wasn't loud. It was just defiant, with its own penetrating fierceness. She strode away, head held high and shoulders back. She didn't even dare to turn back, look back at the scene she and Tiara made. Elena jogged to catch up with her, her brown braid of hair bouncing with each step. "You okay?" Charmaine nodded feebly, looking like her neck was weak as a newborn chick. "Alright, I got twenty minutes before I have to go to drama class. If you're better by then, we'll break a new record.

Charmaine's small giggle bubbled up her throat. "Come on, to the roof!"

When they got there, school passes to the roof in their hands, Charmaine watered each plant with a watering can individually. Then she showered the big hanging plants with the hose. She set it on 'sprinkler' and lightly doused everything like a drizzle. Elena sat at a double desk, going over choir practice songs.

"Tell me if this is high enough." Elena ordered her friend, gesturing her to sit down.

She turned off the hose, and lifted a piece of music in her hands. The lyrics on it sounded familiar. "Okay. Count and… go."

"_Even if we're miles apart!_" Elena sang.

"Higher." Charmaine instructed. "You're not an alto."

"_Even if we're miles apart!_" The girl belted.

Charmaine winced, as if she was hearing nails dragging on a chalkboard. "Lower."

"Gah!" Elena simmered, as if she was eggs frying on a hot Summer day. "You do it!"

Charmaine skimmed the sheet music thoughtfully, pushing her glasses up a tad farther. "You sure?" Elena nodded, trying to keep her face the usual placid form. "I haven't sang since fifth grade—"

"_GO!_"

"Fine! Let's see… _Even if we're miles apart!_" Elena lifted her hands up—higher. "_Even if we're miles apart!_" Elena pulled her hands down—lower. "_Even if we're miles apart!_" Charmaine repeated, Elena now moving her arms rapidly up and down. "_Even if we're _miles and miles and miles_ apart!_"

"Very Sharp—ay." Elena noted, letting her voice pop at the _p_ and glide all the way through. "Well, my twenty—twenty-one minutes are up, gotta ask Darbus if I can find some non-Troyella songs."

Charmaine nodded in understanding. "Kay, I'll just hang here for a bit, finish watering—" she sneezed, tilting her head to the side. "The plants."

"Ew, ew. I'm going now." Elena announced, skimming down the steps. "You should consider choir! If you're interested, practice that song I left!" a small pause. "Oh, you sneezed! Someone's thinking about you!" her voice soon faded in the distance, leaving Charmaine to herself.

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Jimmie wanted to slap himself. He looked around the whole school, nearly twice trying to find Charmaine. He wanted to somewhat, apologize for not sticking around with her just to get a lunch date (again) with Tiara Gold. But the way she told Tiara to shut up, in front of the entire school! Soon enough, he spotted her friend Elena, and grabbed her shoulders. "Hey!" he never talked to Elena much, unless it was about their only connection to each other—Charmaine. "'Lena, know where Charms went? I've been around the school… twice!"

She backed up a bit, finding some breathing room. "Roof." She muttered curtly. "And shouldn't you be in class?"

"I should, if I didn't have free period right now." He said, but he watched Elena ignoring him, suddenly looking frantically in her pocketbook and going 'Ah!'.

"Oh, here!" she handed Jimmie two plastic cards. "Those are passes from the environmentalist club. Get there quickly, I took both of them by accident, so hurry up, if a teacher sees her upstairs without one, she'll get detention."

"Okay, got it, thanks." Jimmie nodded with a grin, looking at the green and white guest pass, _Garden Club/Environmentalist Department_. Then he looked at Charmaine's flowed and lucid signature on the next card, there were butterfly wings on one side of the 'C' in her name.

"Hey, Rocketman?" Elena muttered impatiently, as she might as well be tapping her foot.

"Wha?" Jimmie said, ripping his eyes off Charmaine's name, almost reluctantly.

"_GO!_" Elena barked, watching Jimmie stupidly going 'Oh, right!' and leaving in a run. "I swear," she breathed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Charmaine and Rocket Man just have to… _go_."

Jimmie thought as soon as he got upstairs, the air was suddenly comfortably cool and refreshing. Then he noticed that everywhere you looked, there was a plant. There was an open roof above him, but everything was open to the sun at the far area. He spotted Charmaine there, spraying her hair… with water.

"Oh, hi Jimmie! Nothing like a cold hit of water to wake you up!" she turned off the water, and sped up to him, water droplets flying off her hair. "Hold my glasses."

He couldn't help but watch her wring her hair out, the sun burning the tip of her head deep brown. Her glasses were off, and she was focusing her brown eyes on the concrete, water puddles forming at her feet. And the thing was, she was laughing. It was the first time Jimmie has seen her look so, vibrant… happy. "You've gone crazy, haven't you?"

"Oh, I've been crazy!" she nearly screamed. "Oh, what I did back at lunch, felt so damn—GOOD!" She suddenly bounced up and down the place, until finally coming back to Jimmie, almost leaning on him. "And I'd like to thank you for that."

He flinched, and wiped some water that came on his face. "Me?" he asked, disbelieving. "I didn't do anything."

"Yes you did!" Charmaine protested, grabbing back her glasses. "Remember when we met? You said not to let Tiara get to me. And hopefully, nothing like that happens again." she sat back on the double desk. "Thank you." She repeated, now almost sullen. "Thank you so much."

Jimmie sat next to the girl, there elbows brushing against each other. "Even though, it was you who stepped up to her."

"I guess." She replied, still unconvinced.

Jimmie heaved a sigh, looking up. "Well, you know the spring musical last year?" Charmaine nodded silently, facing Jimmie with her head resting on her crossed arms. "The way I acted—singing with Sharpay. Though I loved every minute with it, I danced with a hot girl, and all these people laughing along with me, I still had a sour feeling in the bottom of my gut."

Charmaine nodded thoughtfully. "Why would you expect Sharpay to enjoy it…?" she asked, merely out of curiosity.

"I expected her to, because Troy said she liked me." He said carefully. Charmaine perked her head up, surprised. "Yeah, I suppose everything's sour when the person you look up to stabs you in the back."

"It must have sucked." Charmaine admitted, her tone blunt.

"Big time."

"I can't believe you'd share such a touchy moment with me." She confessed, getting up and running her hands through her wet black tresses.

"Why not? You're one of my closest friends." Jimmie said, making her sit back down. He slowly descended his head on her shoulder, enjoying the comfort. "Well, what do you think?"

"I… I think Sharpay and Tiara are somewhat connected by the same link. Why would they both hate you? Is there a trigger?" Charmaine managed to say, starting to feel overwhelmed by the extra weight on her shoulder.

After a long pause, he reasoned with, "I don't think so."

The girl in the room closed her eyes, thinking back to lunch. "What did you spray on your arm before?" she asked, receiving a confused look, but Jimmie anyway pushed a bottle of cologne on her palm. She sniffed it lightly. "Ew!" The pungent odor dominated her air, causing her to cough uncontrollably. She only sniffed it! "What is this!?"

Jimmie smirked proudly. "My secret weapon, Babe Magnet."

"Babe Magnet?" repeated Charmaine, raising her eyebrows, then scoffed. "More like, Babe _Repellent_! You will not get any girl with that. And do the atmosphere a favor and never spray it again!"

"No way! Try it again." He almost pressed the nozzle—

"No more!" she laughed, inching away from him. "Seriously! Just get another one—hold on." She ran up and grabbed a water can, going to the more opened area of the roof. "Almost forgot to water these."

"Whatever." Jimmie slipped 'Babe Magnet' back in his jeans pocket.

"_We'll be alright_…" barely audible, Charmaine sang a little at a time in-between watering.

Jimmie's emotions flickered a little. Sharpay sang that song last year with him—sort of. In the end, it was all laughs. No little spark between them, just an 'ah-choo!' that came from Sharpay. He finally noticed the paper on the table, and scanned over it. He looked over Charmaine, and walked over to her, making sure his footsteps were silent.

Charmaine quenched the last tulip's thirst, setting the water can by the plant's side with a small 'clang'. She instantly sensed Jimmie's presence looming toward her; the shadows she could peek at the corner of her eye were coming closer and closer. "_Even if we're miles apart._"

She whipped her body around, obviously not noticing beforehand that their shadows were touching by now. Now she and Jimmie, no space apart, eyes locked, not daring to look away, or too scared to.

"_All I wanna do, is be with you, be with you_." Jimmie countered, the lyrics surprisingly softer compared to the outgoing voice he used with Sharpay during last year's musical. "Come on," he urged.

Charmaine looked at her feet, what was she doing? Was she really singing? Singing no less with the Rocket Man of East High?

"_There's nothing we can't do, just wanna be with you… only you_." Jimmie and Charmaine continued, there voices coming out little by little. A grin escaped up both their lips, almost subconsciously, the singing sort of turned, fun. "_No matter where life takes us, nothing can break us apart… I just wanna be with…_" Charmaine blushed, unable to sing the rest.

"_You_." Jimmie finished, backing up a few inches, but sill relatively close. "You're really good."

"No, that's you." Charmaine muttered. "In my opinion, that was the best version. It made you seem more, charming."

"I would never be able to sing that with Sharpay." He shook his head, denying the thought of singing with her again. "Are you thinking of doing the Spring musical this year?"

"No… I don't know. I got a volleyball team to control anyway."

"That's Tiara's job though." Jimmie knitted his eyebrows together in snafu. "And you're not co-captain either." Yes, the volleyball team got enough popularity to reach the boys' basketball team thanks to Tiara. It was the only thing they could count on from her, recognition.

"Yeah, but—"

"_Miss Lendoza and Mr. Zara, please put some air in-between you two_!"

Both pairs of brown eyes widened, both in embarrassment, and split apart, and faced the front to Darbus. "I wondered why Miss Yolahnden was telling Mr. Zara to go to the roof…"

"Yeah!" Jimmie said quickly, whipping out a pair of passes from his back pocket he almost forgot about. "Sorry, I forgot to get these, so I rushed up down there, and here… and yeah." Miss Darbus snatched them away, checking for authenticity. "Then I saw a bug in her hair."

Charmaine pretended to look at the top of her head, disgusted, as if a bug was actually there before.

"Well," Miss Darbus went on brusquely, "Whatever the matter, I want you both downstairs and in class, now." She handed back the club passes, which Jimmie dived for, but was handed to Charmaine anyway. "Now, hurry up, I'm keeping my students waiting." She went down the stairs, Jimmie and Charmaine soon following.

"We'll talk later, see ya!" Jimmie waved, almost jogging away to the study hall.

Charmaine stared at the back of his retreating form before barking back, "We have study hall _together_!"

Jimmie slowed down a bit, letting Charmaine catch up. He soon draped an arm around her; they almost looked like the perfect couple, until he checked out a girl who just got out of the bathroom.

"Idiot!" Charmaine pushed Jimmie away, who just grinned.

"What?"

Charmaine stated the obvious. "You don't check out girls when you got an arm around another girl!"

Elena seeped out of the classroom, watching Miss Darbus continuing to stare at the two. "So, Miss Darbus? What did you think of the two?"

"As you said, they were _awesome_!" she replied to her student, adapting some slang. She thought back minutes ago, they were singing on the roof, as if they were the only people on the face of the earth, no one but each other. "Yes, they make the perfect duet."


	4. Luckier

**I shall apologize, but the next chapter will take awhile. I have strep throat, and I'm currently banned from the computer until I'm better. And you know what's dandy? I have state testing this week, so I'm going to fail it because I'm taking the test, and I'm sick. I really don't care if anyone thinks this is a sorry excuse, because it's on your own accord, not mine!**

* * *

"I kinda like having a nickname." Elena said absentmindedly, her phone on speaker, zooming her way through a book report at the same time. She thought back to when Jimmie caught her in the hall.

Charmaine paused; she never gave a nickname to Elena before, because she never wanted one. She was typing wickedly on her cell phone keyboard, her left arm was movable again, but she didn't quite tell Jimmie yet. She was currently texting him, waiting a minute or so after typing her reply, to seem as if she's typing slowly with one hand. "What do you mean, having a nickname? Did Felix give you one? He calls me 'Charm Bracelet'." Charmaine said to her phone, sticking her tongue out."

"Nah, Rocket Man did." Elena clarified, typing finishing touches of her report, fixing the errors and grammar. "He calls me 'Lena."

"Wow, how original." Charmaine replied cynically, just as her phone beeped another new text message. "Dude, Jimmie sent me a text message. It says '_I asked 'Lena your address the other day, would you be mad?_' Elena! Who gave you permission to give people my address!?"

"Sorry, I thought you'd be happy I gave him your address." Elena said, the printer spitting out her book report page by page.

"Sure I would, but I'd prefer it if you tell me beforehand."

"It wasn't like I had you at my grasp." Elena replied, stapling her report and slipping it into her folder. "Finally, it's done!" she sighed in relief.

"Your book report?" Charmaine questioned. "I decided Jimmie needed a break, so I typed it in computer applications class." Her phone beeped again, and she realized she never replied to Jimmie beforehand. "I forgot to text him back

.… _'I guess you would be mad?'_ Aw, man."

She pressed quickly on the keyboard to say that she wasn't mad.

"Felix is asking if you want to go to the library today, the three of us." Elena's voice piped up, the sound of her keyboard keys going back and forth like a chopped up song. "I'm talking to him online. Oh gosh, I hate slow typers, and he's one of them. Does Jimmie text slow?"

"Surprisingly, no." Charmaine admitted, her cell phone beeping once more. "He actually texts pretty fast." She waited for her friend to reply, and heard nothing but her fast-paced typing. "I sang with Jimmie, it was, kind of nice." Elena's typing soon ceased as the words came out of her mouth. "Now that I have your attention…"

"Miss Darbus said you two were awesome." Elena said. "Is it true?"

"I don't know," Charmaine replied in defense, staring at another of Jimmie's messages. "He says, _'I just remembered something I wanted to talk to you about' _Okay, what do you think this means?"

"It means he wants to talk to you." Elena said in a monotonous dry tone. "Hold on, I have another call,"

"Hold up—"

Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

Charmaine sighed; she was left hanging, only a small dial tone to keep her company. After a few seconds, she pulled out the list her and Rocket Man have been doing for the past time. For the most part, the list was dominated by Jimmie's various abbreviations and handwriting that were barely legible. She decided Jimmie's thoughts on their list were beginning to fade, because ever since Charmaine's arm healed, she could freely write on her own. But in truth, the list lived up to its title _'Ways I Can Think Happier Thoughts', _she did feel happier.

She took out her royal purple pen and smoothed the paper on her desk. She neatly wrote 'Number 23:' and paused. She scrolled down the list, from number one ('Think about how much Jimmie Zara is going to owe me') to number twenty-two ('A banter between volleyball and basketball always puts you in the mood')

"Number twenty-three… to just talk." Charmaine finally wrote, thinking to Jimmie's past message. She did enjoy the feeling of talking, because everything in talking, the mannerisms, the tones, the words, represented what you thought. She also thought taking wish Jimmie was more opened, she didn't have that courteous kind of talk to her elders, or the controlled way she had to keep in check with Elena.

She cringed as her cell phone played off her ring tone, and she angrily clicked the send button, her eyes still attempting to concentrate on the paper in front of her. "Elena! You just made my train of thought fall off a bridge and kill all my ideas!" She finally took her ear away from the phone, reading the screen in embarrassment.

"You know, you could just say 'I lost my train of thought'."

Charmaine rapped the top of her head as hard as possible. "I thought you were Elena, Jimmie." She gripped the tip of their list tightly, breathing in and out. "I'm sorry, just a little racked."

"Don't worry about it," Jimmie said, unknowing that he was actually relaxing the girl; Charmaine still had the urge to hit her head again. "By the way, Elena said that she'll say hi to Felix for you."

"What?" She then hit her forehead, breaking her self-control. "Oh, that. I remember. Thanks."

"Hey, can we like, not talk on the phone?" Jimmie asked, causing Charmaine to wear a face of confusion. "I'm wasting my minutes."

"Then where are we—" he hung up on her. She frowned; did everyone feel like it was right to hang up on her? She heard a sharp tap from her window, and she froze. "Shit,"

"Charms!"

Immediately when she heard that voice, she snapped open the window and yelled at the basketball captain, "What the hell? You could have warned me! You scared me!" There was terror in her eyes. "I'm all alone in this house! And I've got a baby brother taking a nice nap in his room! I assume if someone is tapping at my window they want to _kill me_!" She was breathing rapidly, like the air around her was thinning rapidly.

"Dude, calm down." Jimmie put his hands on her shoulders, trying to pull back the tension.

"How can I calm down!?"

"I'm not a killer." Jimmie reasoned, smiling broadly. "I swear I'm not. Unless you've watched that episode of Medium, and you see that actor that looks like me, holding a gun—do you get the point?" he asked, ceasing his rambling.

"I get that you're not a killer!" the girl clarified, cupping her hands over her mouth and trying to stop her overzealous inhaling. "The only thing I cant not freak out about is the fact that Jimmie Zara," the words came out muffled from her hands, so she feebly removed her hands away from her face, pointing at Jimmie. "You, now I'm freaking out that you're at my house, why!?" Jimmie cocked his head to his side, making Charmaine slap back her hands over her face, to her eyes. "Don't do that!"

"Do what?" he laughed.

"Making yourself look innocent!"

"It works, doesn't it?" Jimmie said with a small smirk.

"A devil in disguise." Charmaine pulled herself from the window. "So, now that we've gotten most of my insanity of this event out, why are you here?"

"Duh, to see you." Charmaine bit her lip, fighting the urge not to misinterpret her thoughts. So Jimmie wanted so see her. Big deal, okay, very big deal. "Move over a bit." Charmaine ignored him, and he placed his Vans slip-on the windowsill, and attempted to climb up and in.

Charmaine's brown eyes widened. Now Jimmie was trying to get in her house! "No-no, just no." She weakly tried to push the Rocket Man back outside. "You don't go through my window. In fact, you don't go in my house at all!" With a final push, she balanced her hands on Jimmie's shoulders. "Look, if my parents find out you're in my house, we will never see the light of day."

"Charms, chill." Jimmie said, her friend keeping rapt attention between him and the door opened barely a crack. "Where are your parents?"

"Mom, work. Dad, not too sure, possibly gym." Charmaine replied, chopped and quick-like. "Look, I'm not saying I don't want you here, because I really do. I'm saying that—okay, I never talk properly on situations like this, so bear with me." She suddenly gripped Jimmie's shoulders tightly, like she was holding onto her life line. "I need to chill, right."

Jimmie grabbed her wrists in a vice-like hold, and removed Charmaine's grip from his broad shoulders, letting the circulation return. "Then what? You're at home with your brother, that's all. I'll be out in no time for sure, and your parents will never notice." Jimmie winked, finally sticking his white beanie-clad head in his friend's room. "Nice place."

"Eh," grimaced Charmaine, backing away from Jimmie. "Too much Babe Repellent." Charmaine finally put Rocket Man into realization that his cologne, Babe Magnet, was only driving the girls away. "You're lucky I still stick with you. Didn't I tell you how much—I don't mean to be blunt, but I don't like it."

Jimmie's face faltered for a moment. "Is it really that bad?" he asked, lifting up one of his arms and sniffing it.

Charmaine gave her friend a sad look. "I'm sorry, it's that bad. And you really can't smell yourself; you're too used to your scent." The girl turned around, she stared at the space of the wall, as if in a trance "I'll be right back. Stay."

As soon as Charmaine left, Jimmie found the opportunity to slip in the window and land on an un-made bed. The walls were an old white, and there was a desk with a small computer, and a large amount of papers lining it, so you could barely see the top.

He suddenly spotted his handwriting, and reached up to grab the middle piece of paper on the desk. He remembered this list, _Ways I Can Think Happier Thoughts_; he thought Charmaine had lost it after the two weeks afterward, when her arm started to heal. But here it was, in his hands. After number twenty-two, his handwriting stopped, and Jimmie noticed Charmaine's handwriting down. "_Just talk?_" He read in confusion. He placed the paper back on the desk, hopefully unnoticed that it was touched, and sat back on the bed.

"It's nice to know when I say 'stay' you do the exact opposite." Charmaine said softly, going back in her room with two small vials in her hands. Jimmie eyed them warily. "Relax." Charmaine chimed, as if she was reading his mind. "They're just some cologne samples my dad gets. He works there; I don't know which department, but still." She threw one of the vials at Jimmie, who caught it even though unprepared. "My parents know their stuff, and they tell me that this is really good."

Jimmie watched the young girl sit next to her, in a large black shirt and blue shorts; she's been home all day, on a Saturday, still in pajamas. "You really need to get out more." He said, scrutinizing the vial, it was some sort of green-ish tinted thing, and the name looked really out of this country. He unscrewed the cap and let a drop go on his arm. He sniffed it. "Not bad."

"Yeah," she murmured, a small smile forming on her face. "You can keep that. In fact, take the other vial, too. It's the same thing."

"Thanks," Jimmie stocked them in his front pocket. "You really know all this cologne business?"

Charmaine shrugged. "It always depends on your skin type though. Colognes and perfumes can have different affects on different skin types. It can be good, or bad. Babe Magnet might be good on other people, but by a slim shot." Her smile widened at her small joke. "But yeah. I guess I know a bit."

"No wonder you smell so good." Jimmie commented, almost flirtatiously. He nudged her by the shoulder, catching in her scent once again. "What do you use?"

"Nothing, just a cheap spray."

"Well, it's working."

Charmaine nodded in the awkward moment. "Jimmie, you said you wanted to talk to me about something. What was the something?" she shifted a bit in her bed.

Jimmie pressed his lips together for a brief moment. "…Oh, yeah! I wanted to talk about my name."

"Your name?" asked Charmaine, shocked. "You wanted to talk about your _name_? Just how important is it to talk about your name?"

"Actually, very important." Jimmie chided, looking at Charmaine's almost ashamed expression. "Really, it is. Remember when like, a long time ago, you said you wouldn't call me Rocket Man?" his friend nodded slowly, still not getting it. "Well, you said that you'd tell me that their was a story behind it. I wanna know it."

"Why?" Charmaine asked, her tone almost laced with offense. In truth, she only told Jimmie that their was a story behind not calling him Rocket Man so he'd be off her hair. In that case, it didn't work out, because he ended up still following her to Miss Darbus' room. But in fact, a story was behind it. Not exactly a good one, but it was a story.

Jimmie pulled out a pair of drumsticks from his pocket. They were plain wood, and they were worn, they've probably everywhere knowing Jimmie. He wouldn't be able to stand anything without a bit of noise nipping his ears. He began to play a beat on one of her dressers; he bobbed his head back and forth, into it. "I don't know. I just do. And knowing you," he smiled, careful not to look at Charmaine's desk so she wouldn't question anything. Of course he knew a story like hers would be really cool and in-depth. "You probably have a pretty juicy story."

Charmaine laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, right." She felt an odd pang in her body. She never felt like this before, since forever ago. Forever ago she was so happy, despite some faults in-between. Not to say she's wasn't happy now, but it almost seemed the past was better than the present. All the memories flooded in her head like a river sending sediment to the ocean. "Wow." She frowned, staring at space with glazed eyes.

"What is it?" Jimmie asked, stopping his beat with his drumsticks. He sat in a space on the floor, so he could look directly at Charmaine, who in turn, was staring at the floor, now replaced by Jimmie's lap. "Look up a bit."

The girl silently obeyed. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about something. It was something important in my," she chewed on her cheek for a brief moment. "Story."

Jimmie put his hands in the air. "The floor is yours." Then he looked down, he was sitting on the multi-tan coloured carpet. "Well, I'm on the floor, but you know what I mean."

Charmaine smiled a bit, but she hissed a small puff of air, knowing the story was about to burst. She had to be collected about this, and not explode like a nuclear bomb. "As you know, there are three middle schools in this town. Mid-West, Central, and Mid-East middle school. Well, I went to Central." Jimmie nodded in acknowledgement. "There was a boy, we called him Shockey."

"Why?" asked Jimmie.

"Some say he met this athlete, whose name's Shockey, I didn't really get in-depth to know why his nickname's that." Charmaine replied hotly, mad that Jimmie had to interrupt. "Believe me, you couldn't not like him. He was an honour student, and he was a master at every freaking sport, even gymnastics." Jimmie stifled a laugh. "I'm serious. You could say, when he did back flips, so did my stomach." Charmaine's cheeks turned a peachy-red colour. "Okay, basically, I just told you I liked him."

Jimmie gave a half-smile; he never thought Charmaine would say something so personal to him. Well, something that was personal, yet giving off a sense of infatuation.

"Well, he and I weren't the best pairing. One day, he decided to play around and he stuffed all of my books in his locker, and left. In all honesty, I didn't like it. I got back at him by stuffing some tampons in his locker, after finding out his combination after numerous days stalking—watching him."

Jimmie laughed out loud, this time; Charamine didn't mind he disrupted her little story. "Are you serious?" He asked in-between chortles. "Nice! Way to put on the charm, Charms!"

"Well, the hits got more and more angry." Charmaine said, the vibe in the room suddenly changing. "We got distant, and I hated that. If we exchanged words, we yelled. The horrible part was—is, he lives across the street." She looked in the direction of her desk; Jimmie assumed that was the direction he lived in. "So, I got torment twenty-four seven."

"Beyond the street, is West High territory." Jimmie stated, keeping to the basics. "I think that's right. Anyone living there is a West High Knight."

"Yeah, I hate that. One day, our ties were cut. We don't speak anymore. I don't even bother just walking a few feet to say how it's going. It's killing." Charmine thought she should talk about this story with Elena tomorrow, the memories. "He's not Shockey to me anymore, he's just Sebastian Andrews."

"He's the West High basketball captain!" Jimmie exclaimed both in surprise and shock. "Him, _really_?"

"I guess," Charmaine mumbled. "I don't really keep up with West High affairs, since I don't go to that school, or talk to them… anymore." Charmaine bit her lip, small enough so Jimmie couldn't notice. "So, I won't call you Rocket Man because it makes me think, oh, I feel like I just told a story for no apparent reason." She buried her face in her hands in embarrassment. "No, _Rocket Man_ just reminds me on how bad a relationship can change."

"How?" Jimmie asked. "I'm not… Shockey." he controlled his thoughts not to stick out his tounge when he had to say that name, he wasn't buddy-buddy enough to call him 'Shockey'. Calling him Andrews was perfectly fine. "Rocket Man and Shockey are two different names."

"I can't call Sebastian 'Shockey'. It just shows how much our relationship deteriorated, if I called you Rocket Man, what if something happens? And I won't be able to bear calling you a personal name like Rocket Man anymore." Charmaine retorted, her expression sullen.

"I'll tell you, nothing bad's gonna happen." Jimmie promised, getting up to sit on the bed. He rested his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "And I'm not even gonna say 'but if something does happen' because, it's not."

Charmaine heaved a breath a little too heavy, and let it out through her teeth. "If you say so." She didn't even want to argue with her friend, he was too much of a pep-talker to her, that she got used to it. And she appreciated it, she like how he cared for her.

Jimmie's face lit up. "So you'll call me Rocket Man?"

Charmaine shook her head vigorously. "Nope, never." She smiled when she watched her friend's face fall, and it only made him more confused seeing that she was smiling. "If you don't mind, I'd rather be one of the only people in school not to call you Rocket Man." She caved in, just this once. "Just for you, _Rocket Man_."

Jimmie found this unexpected and way too abrupt for his taste. He blushed. He didn't expect to find the way Charmaine said 'Rocket Man' to be so, _lovely_. The way it rolled off her tongue didn't sound like much of a tease like he would've thought, so Charmaine must have wanted him to savour the thought, he may never hear her call him 'Rocket Man' ever again.

A small 'bump' from upstairs jolted Charmaine's head to the ceiling in one swift turn. "My brother's awake. He'll never shut up if he sees you."

He hopped off the bed like it was a springboard, and clasped his hands together. "It's okay; I gotta go anyway, meeting Dion for some b-ball. But before I go," Jimmie checked the direction of Charmaine's desk, if he were to walk in that direction straight-on, he'd be in front of Sebastian Andrews house. "I'll take a peek at what the West High's basketball captain is doing." He started for the window, pushing it open as quietly and widely as he can. "Wish me luck,"

Charmaine gave a minuscule smile, it was enough to enhance Jimmie's ready-for-it grin ten-fold. "Luckier if you live to see the stare of _Mister_ Andrews, vice-president of our township's school_ board_." Jimmie mentally sent her something along the lines of 'Are you kidding me?' and swept outside, and closed the window quick, but gentle. She kept staring at the window; she didn't even lock it after a good fifteen minutes. She almost wished that he would come running back, laughing that he stole Sebastian's team jersey or something. She silently walked back to her desk, staring at their list: _Ways I Can Think Happier Thoughts_. Her brother's footsteps were getting closer and closer. She crossed out the 'I' on the title, revised, it read: _Ways We Can Think Happier Thoughts_.

Charmaine would have to wait until tomorrow to see him.


	5. Charmer

Tiara Gold was the most popular girl in school. She was the prettiest. She was the most theatrical. She was the _best_.

Until Charmaine Lendoza killed it. Charmaine was the reason for everything. Charmaine was the reason she was humiliated in front of the entire school at lunch. Charmaine was the reason Tiara had to get a new cardigan. Charmaine was the reason Jimmie wasn't flirting with her anymore (though she didn't like him, she relished the attention). Charmaine Lendoza, was her number one target for revenge.

Charmaine should've understood her place in East High a long time ago—her place was—wait! Tiara knew Charmaine wasn't supposed to have a place. And she was just soaking up Tiara's air.

How could she get to her… how could she? She opened her double lockers, pink. She fawned over herself in the mirror, and then picked up her morning books. Next to her right, was Charmaine, _ugh_. She was chatting with one over friends, Elen, or something like that.

"—really, Elena. I miss him." Charmaine muttered, so loud only Tiara's diamond pierced ear could hear in the small area.

"Well, I don't know how to help you." Elen… Elena, replied, closing Charmaine's locker for her. "He's a West High Knight."

"We should go visit them! Today after school! Kampos, Berate, Joahsen… _Andrews_! They'll all be there! It's been _forever _since we've said hi to them!" Charmaine suggested, her voice all pep and unusually filled with excitement.

" Oo, _Andrews_!" Elena teased, causing Tiara to lean a little to the right at her playful tone. "Well, it has. Okay, after school. We'll…" Elena moved closer to Charmaine hoping no one could hear her. "We'll go to West High. Come by my locker later." She whispered.

As soon as they left, Tiara closed her locker daftly, and clasped her hands together like superglue. "Looks like the secret's out!"

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"So, how are you two doing?" Elena asked, jotting some notes on loose-leaf paper.

"Um, fine? I guess…" Donny replied, not understanding what she was talking about.

"You and Rocket Man still best friends?"

"… Sure? Strong as ever." He found it strange that Elena (he had no idea how to neither spell nor pronounce her last name) wanted to talk to him. It's not like they hated each other, they just weren't in the same clique. He tapped on some switches backstage, turning the spotlights off. "Anything else you want to ask me? Why's the sky blue? Why's the grass green—"

"Actually, I do wanna ask more." Elena laced her fingers together in a studious manner. Donny was looking over various cues for the next musical, and Elena was waiting patiently. She gave a long sigh. "Do you remember freshman science?"

The boy shrugged. "Um, yeah? Dude, what does that have to do with anything?"

Elena knew Donny was becoming impatient, considering his job in the drama department was frustrating enough. She packed up some of her spare books she put on the audience chairs, and Miss Darbus bid them farewell. "Listen, it just got me reminding. What do you remember most about that class?"

"I don't know," Donny muttered, hopping off the stage. "Switched lab partners 'cause Rocket Man wasn't paying attention. I was working in the uneven group. With Tiara Gold and… some nerd—"

"That was _me_." Seethed Elena, almost prepared to drop the entire conversation, but kept her anger in check. "I mean, don't you remember who Jimmie was partnered with next?"

"Yea, some girl." Donny remarked, packing away some of his things in his backpack. "Wasn't the best of things." Something clicked in his head. "Wait, which was Charmaine! Oh, wow. I get it." He slumped back in one of the burgundy chairs. "Can you believe it? They're not like that anymore."

"They were total bitches to each other." The brown haired girl deadpanned, sitting in the chair next to him.

"Yeah." Donny agreed. "But she helped him stay on the team."

"But they yelled, all the time." The girl pointed out, waving a finger. "They got yelled at for yelling, all the time. I wonder what they were fighting about."

"Oh, just the regular stuff." Donny said, suddenly more into what they were talking about. "Rocket Man said it was annoying that she kept saying, '_I'll just do the work by myself and you can get the F, all by yourself_.' Or '_You won't learn anything if I just tell_ _you the answer, so actually _do_ the work.'_, it was a riot." Donny laughed, causing Elena in turn to smile. "Do you think Charmaine still remembers that?"

"Ah, reminiscing." Elena chimed woefully. "Yes, every second, of every minute. She said to me every argument was heated, and it looked like she loved every retort she had, every comment." She grinned. "She even said once that he was so stupid that he couldn't tell whether what she was saying was an insult or a compliment. '_You're so insufferable!_' he'd smirk. '_I didn't know you were suffering on how much you like me_.' That was a fail on words." But her face suddenly turned sullen. "Even though, Charmaine hated it, to hate him, she knew they misunderstood each other. But she was afraid to say anything, to the possibility of making it worse."

"Oh."

"Does Rocket Man remember?" Elena wondered. "I mean, Charmaine. She had like, no glasses, bob cut, just different."

Donny paused, thinking about it. "Don't know. But, does it really matter? That was a _year_ ago. Donny stressed on 'year' to emphasize his point. "A year ago, they were fightin' over what colour dye they should use for mixing borax. It was something stupid; they'd probably laugh at it by now—"

Elena stopped the boy before he could continue. "Don't tell Rocket Man."

"Why wouldn't I? He's my best friend."

"Because I think it would be better if he found out on his own.

Donny didn't like the idea of not telling his best friend this very important detail between him and Charmaine. "What if he doesn't find out on his own?"

"Then you live with extra weight on your shoulders." Donny opened his mouth to protest, but Elena beat him to it. "Pay attention, Charmaine still remembers. But Jimmie doesn't."

"I can't. I have to tell him." Donny crossed his arms in defiance. "You pay attention." Elena's hazel eyes widened. "Rocket Man might remember, we're not sure yet—"

"Not too sure I don't remember what?" Both Elena and Donny tensed at that voice. Why wouldn't they? Jimmie Zara must have found it strange that his best friend was talking to Charmaine's closest friend, about him.

"Yo, hey man!" Donny gave Jimmie a high five as soon as he rand down to him, trying to be as casual as possible. "

"Hey," he glanced at Elena, who just gave a short wave. "So, what were you saying?" Jimmie noticed Elena looking at Donny anxiously, who chose to ignore it, even though he clearly noticed it. Okay, something's definitely going on.

"Oh, last year science." Donny said truthfully. "Elena was telling me how awful it was—"

"Please don't remind me!" Jimmie suddenly exclaimed, his face showed exasperation clear as day. "That Caroline girl was freaking annoying!"

Elena did a double check, thinking she heard wrong. "Who's Caroline?"

"Oh, please don't tell me you don't remember her!" Elena stepped back, seeing Jimmie was going to the point of insanity at the _sudden thought_ of freshman science. "You know, that girl with the really short hair cut?"

Elena pinched the bridge of her nose. "Are you that oblivious?" she finally spat out.

"Huh? What are you—"

"Never mind!" Elena swung her arms in the air.

"Okay?" Jimmie replied unsurely. "Dion, we better get to the gym. "'Lena, you know where Charms went?"

Elena mentally gasped. She completely forgot about telling Charmaine to meet her by her locker after school. "She has an appointment." Jimmie's face fell, Elena assumed it was because he was going to ask her to watch him practice.

"Nah, it's cool." He turned to Donny once again. "Dude, we gotta go."

Elena frowned. It was clearly not cool. But she didn't have to correct him; she spared a glance at Donny, who shrugged, soon following Jimmie out of the auditorium.

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Jimmie took a long swig of his Gatorade, sitting tiredly at the bleachers. Sweat dripped from his face, his jersey drenched. Practice was over, and everyone was hitting the showers. "Come on," Donny groaned, slightly irritated. "You stink."

Backpack slung on one shoulder, Jimmie wondered why he was acting like this. I mean, he was disappointed that Charmaine couldn't come and see him after school, but it seemed like 'disappointed' might be an understatement. "Yo, Dion. Gotta pen?" he asked, walking out of the gym. Donny handed him a dulled yellow pencil. "I think I'll need some paper to go with that." And abrupt ripping sound was heard, and he was handed half a sheet of loose leaf. He leaned on a locker, pencil poised in hand. "Okay. How's 'Hey Charmaine, me and Dion missed you. Better watch us next practice!'?"

"Definitely not. You're the one who missed her, don't put my name!"

Jimmie frowned, twiddling the pencil around like a drumstick. He noticed the eraser was chewed off, and played off the excuse. "Too bad, there's no eraser." He began signing his name at the end.

"Dude, you really need to sort out your feelings."

Jimmie hesitated, breaking off his train of thought. He sighed, leaning his back against the locker and sliding to the floor, much like Charmaine when he bumped into her. "I don't know, man. It's weird. I never called her baby doll, when I did with Tiara. When Tiara turned down our lunch dates, I always brushed it off. Charmaine, I'm still kinda down she couldn't come. Why am I comparing her to Tiara? I never liked her; I guess I just liked the facet liking the hottest girl in school."

"That, is the smartest in-depth thing you said all year." Jimmie gave his friend a small glare. "Okay, okay. Listen, Charmaine. She's different." He sat down opposite the confused teenager.

"You got that right." Admitted Jimmie, lightly banging his head against the locker.

"Go for it." Donny pushed Jimmie's knee, telling him to get up.

He nodded with confidence. Jimmie fiercely scribbled out the text on the note, and turned it over. "Here we go. 'I missed you during practice. Meet me during free period? Jimmie.'" He gave it a one over, and Donny gave a thumb up. "Let's get this to her locker."

"Where is it?"

Jimmie led them across a few halls, and pointed to a grey locker, "This one. I'm sure." He slipped the note through the locker vents. "And now we wait. I wonder what kind of appointment she had."

A sudden slam of a pink locker caused the two Wildcats to jolt. "Is that what you call it? An appointment?" Tiara laughed, placing her hands on both hips, covering her scowl, they didn't even spare her a glance when they were right next to her.

"Yeah. But it doesn't concern you." Jimmie said coolly. He was still miffed on the lunch incident, and Tiara just being mean to Charmaine in general.

"Fine." Tiara said crisply. "If you don't want to know where Charmaine Lendoza's whereabouts,"

That caught Jimmie's attention. "How would you know?"

"Of course I would know, my locker's right next to her, you moron. How could I not hear her?"

"Fine. Where is she?"

"Up-up-up. Nothing is free in life." Tiara's foreign accent drawled. "What do I get in return?"

Jimmie considered the consequences. If he got the information he wanted, he'd have to pay a hefty price. Then again, he could always ask Charmaine the next day. "Never mind. I'll find out on my own." He and Donny began to walk away.

Tiara huffed. "Wait!" she would rather let herself say it, because Charmaine was, Charmaine, who could keep her words on a vague but promising explanation. She watched Jimmy and Donny cross their arms, _well_?

"Elena and Charmaine went to West High School." She said smugly. "They said they were going to meet some old friends," she ticked off her fingers as she began the names. "Kampos, Berate, Joahsen and… _Sebastian Andrews_."

Jimmie and Donny gaped. Those were the people on the West High basketball team! How would Elena and Charmaine know them, see them? The East High basketball team beat their asses last year; they shouldn't even be worthy enough to look at them!

"Charmaine especially wanted to see Andrews. She said she _really_ missed him." Tiara added, knowing how Jimmie would feel, it was obvious. "Well, best be going. Mum's making Cesar salad, ta-ta!"

Jimmie couldn't understand. Charmaine was with the West High Knights? Sebastian Andrews, captain of the team, she missed him. He was crushed.

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"Hey!" Charmaine exclaimed jovially, looking at the blank face of Jimmie Zara. She tossed the note he put in her locker yesterday on his desk. "Why didn't you just tell me now? Or call me on my cell?"

Jimmie ignored her, and preceded writing on a scrap piece of paper. Charmaine's smile began to fade, and she sat back in her seat. Then a slip of paper was suddenly thrown off Jimmie's shoulder and on her desk. She cautiously opened it up, careful that Miss Darbus wasn't watching her.

_ 'Cause it's cooler on a note. _The note said in Jimmie's fast paced handwriting, just like him.

She scribbled on the piece of paper, and softly threw it on Jimmie's desk. _True, very true. ~Charmaine Lendoza_

Jimmie couldn't help but stare at Charmaine's signature, with the little butterfly on the side of the 'C'. It was really adorable for her. _Meeting me during free period?_

"Yeah," Charmaine whispered, leaning on his shoulder and reading over his note. His cheeks warmed, she never put her chin on his shoulder before. It was, sort of relaxing, knowing she was right there. "If I knew where we were meeting up, study hall?"

"Hey, the note thing was cooler." Jimmie murmured. "Never mind, I don't want to meet up in study hall. How about the courtyard?" He didn't want to explain his feelings in a public area, he was sure of that.

"Are we allowed?" Charmaine asked.

"I could pull a few strings with Coach Bolton, to get us passes."

"Are you serious?" The girl asked, slightly shocked. "I know he'd let his son, but you?"

"Unless you think the gym is a better place…"

"Actually, yeah." Charmaine admitted, embarrassed. "Allergies, I've been sneezing a lot."

Elena smirked from her seat, recalling the day at the roof. _"Oh, you sneezed! Someone's thinking about you!"_

"Alright, meet me there third period." Jimmie instructed. The weight of Charmaine eventually off his shoulder, made him realize he couldn't wait until free period.

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Well, you're early." Jimmie remarked, watching Charmaine hit a volleyball back and forth on the wall. She probably didn't even notice him. He walked over to her, smacking her volleyball in mid-air.

The girl's hands were already positioned in a set shot, and Charmaine's face tightened when Jimmie interrupted her. "Hey!" she exclaimed, slapping him on the shoulders. "I was at fifty hits!"

"We aren't here to play volleyball."

Charmaine noticed the slight change in Jimmie's attitude, and complied, sitting at the bleachers. "Oh fine. But next time you run into anything volleyball related, I'll make sure your running around half-naked for your clothes."

"You were there?" he asked in surprise, sitting one seat above her.

"I am on the volleyball team." She rolled her eyes for effect.

"Well, I know now… but before?"

"Yeah. Anyways…" Charmaine trailed off on her words for a brief moment. "Why are we here? Is something wrong?"

"I guess." He said, swishing his shaggy chocolate-brown hair. "Listen, I know this might sound weird."

"Hey, don't say that." Charmaine prompted, patting his knee and sitting up beside him. "If everything in the world is weird, which it is, everything is normal."

Jimmie loved how optimistic she was, and how she could say it so easily. "Yeah, but it's really…"

"How is it so weird?" the girl asked, tucking her dark bangs behind her ear.

"It's because I like you." He muttered softly.

Charmaine froze. No one ever said that to her before. Sure, she knew a few people who liked her, but they never admitted it. She thought it would be nearly impossible to hear that come out of a boy's lips, especially Jimmie Zara. He was Jimmie Zara, the Rocket Man of the basketball team. He was cool, athletic, and all-around ostentatious. "Do you, really mean that?" she asked, completely in disbelief.

"Why wouldn't I?" Jimmie questioned in puzzlement. "You're you. You're adorable, you say what's on your mind, and you have an awesome looking signature…" Charmaine laughed lightly at the last reason. "Should I go on?" Charmaine shook her head.

"No, but you are quite the charmer, giving a girl all these compliments."

"And this is the first time too." Charmaine looked at Jimmie, shaking her head. "Okay, I've called girls hot. But with you, I don't think 'hot' is a good word. There are a billion better adjectives I can look up."

Charmaine smiled. "Really, I can't believe this. You'd look in the dictionary for me?"

"Yeah," he rubbed the back of his neck gawkily. "So yeah, that's all I have to say, I guess we should go back to study hall?" he made a move to get up, but someone grabbed his arm and sat him down.

"That's it?" Charmaine said. "You're not going to ask me for a response? You're not going to let me say anything in return?"

"I think I already know the answer, and I don't think I like it." Jimmie replied. _"Charmaine especially wanted to see Andrews. She said she _really_ missed him." _He remembered Tiara saying yesterday by her locker.

"Why? Wouldn't you like to know what feedback you'd get for saying something so… affectionate?"

"Well what about Sebastian Andrews?" Jimmie shot back, catching the volleyball player off-guard. "I thought you really missed him."

Charmaine's mouth was agape. "I have no idea how you know that, but what does he have to do with anything?" She squeezed Jimmie's arm, both in irritation and comfort. "Maybe I do miss him! But he's not you!"

"Me?"

"You!" she grinned. "You're The Rocket! You're cute, you're uplifting, and you're the person _I like_." She wrapped her arms around his torso, pulling him into a hug. "Shockey's shocked. You have a game with them at the park, and I told him specifically that Rocket Man's going to personally beat your ass."

He smiled. Charmaine Lendoza, the girl he likes, has her arms wrapped around her, and she likes him back. And he's got a basketball game to look forward to.

"By the way, you were right. A courtyard scenario would've worked better, more romantic." Charmaine sneezed again, pulling away from Jimmie the slightest second. "I really need some new allergy medicine."

* * *

**The end?**


End file.
